Maryland lawmakers have approved $50 million a year to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.  And, after an intense debate in Annapolis that ended last night (Sunday, Nov. 18), legislators decided against robbing a land preservation program to pay for pollution reduction efforts, which was what the state senate advocated.

Instead, tourists and drivers will pay to clean up the bay.  Everytime someone rents a car in Maryland, a portion of their state car rental tax will go to the new Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund. And a portion of the state's gasoline tax will also go into the fund.

Environmentalists are declaring victory this morning.

"We've been at it for three years, trying to get dedicated funding for bay cleanup," said Kim Coble, Maryland Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (pictured below).  "This is a real step forward...The legislators said 'we are going to make the bay a big priority.'"

Legislation specifying exactly how the money will be spent did not pass yesterday.  The appropriations will be discussed by lawmakers in January.  Temporarily, the $50 million a year will go to the Maryland Department of Natural Resouces.  The intention is for the money to go to  programs to reduce runoff of fertilizer pollution into the bay, such as paying farmers not to use fertilizer while planting wheat and other crops in the fall, and encouring them to plant buffer strips of trees and grass along streams.  Part of the money will likely go to local governments, to fix leaky urban and suburban stormwater systems that disgorge sewage and trash every time it rains.

Dru Schmidt Perkins, director of a preservation group called 1000 Friends of Maryland, said this morning she's relieved that the legislature did not move forward with a proposal to pay for the Bay Trust Fund in part by taking $20 million a year from the state's Program Open Space.  This would have shortchanged the purchasing of fields and forests to protect them from development, and taken away from local recreation programs, she said.

The reductions in runoff achieved through the Bay Trust Fund are designed to help Maryland meet goals of reducing nitrogen and other pollutants by 2010.  So far, the state is no where near its goals.  Way too much nitrogen gets flushed by rain into the nation's largest estuary, fuelling the growth of algae, which kills fish and creates low oxygen "dead zones."

But the Bay Trust Fund will start the state down the road toward cutting this runoff pollution.  Many experts say this "non point source" pollution -- runoff pollution -- is the hardest problem to fix, because it pours in from everywhere, including farms, urban streets and suburban parking lots.

Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich three years ago helped address a different source of bay pollution: from the outfall pipes of sewage treatment plants.  He worked with state Del. Maggie McIntosh (a Baltimore Democrat and leader in the effort to pass this year's Bay Fund) and others to create a "flush tax" that generates $65 million a year to upgrade filters on muncipal waste treatment systems through a $30 annual fee on the sewage bills of all state residents.